The Story of John Hancock
by FandomLady1211
Summary: The life before John McDonough became Mayor John Hancock. THIS DOES CONTAIN SPOILERS FOR FALLOUT 4. This is just a headcanon story I felt like I needed to write. Chapter 1 is a little short too. I'd like to thank my friend CJ for helping me proofread and giving me creative criticism when I needed it! Enjoy!
1. The Roof

**Author's Note** : Hey guys, this is my first time writing Fallout fanfiction. I was a terrible fan and started playing Fallout when Fallout 4 came out, then I played New Vegas and then 3.

ANYWAYS this is in NO WAY canon. My Fallout 4 oc isn't exactly the Sole Survivor because Shaun was dead to me as soon as I found the Institute, so Ruby (my SS) was born into the Wasteland and she fixes things. So here we go. Also I just went with what John called Mayor McDonough SO FINALLY HERE WE GO FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS.

The Story Of John Hancock.

Diamond City was the safest city in the Commonwealth. A wall to protect it, guards patrolling, everything was fine there. The only thing these narrow minded people had to fear was The Institute. Synths were a common fear in the Commonwealth but to the good and fair people of Diamond City, Synths were wolves in sheep's clothing. Though their were some who questioned the fear. Like John McDonough. John's older brother, Guy, couldn't stand having to look for his younger brother when he skipped school. He couldn't stand having to do a lot of things for John because he was, as Martha called him, the baby. John was a bright-eyed 16 year old boy who wanted nothing more than to go beyond the wall. Their parents, Patrick and Martha, had always snuffed out the embers of his ideas of leaving before they could turn into a determined, blazing, fire.

Guy, on the other hand, was a strong willed, narrow minded 18-year-old. He was assigned to be his brothers keeper by his mother. Patrick and Guy weren't too keen on Martha babying John but well, he wasn't complaining one bit. John liked his mother treating him like he was the best thing since a Swatter. Though, John knew his older brother would rather be spending time with his friends than having to look for him.

At 16, a boy was to start preparing for the world beyond the wall or preparing to do a part in his city or colony. Martha didn't want that for John. Guy felt as if John's work was less on him. John would go out and 'help' Nick while he had to work with his father in the market or do trading deals with him. Though he was preparing to become the man of the family while John spent his time bothering Piper or helping Nick with his handiwork. True he never got paid but at least he could tell Guy he was doing very important things, though those important things were simply painting or tightening a pipe.

Guy wasn't happy to be looking for John today, not after his mother's hysterical babbling about how he may have gotten past the wall. He searched all around the city, the market, the outskirts, the bases, even at Nicks. He was beginning to give up until he saw John up on the roof of an upper stands house. Upper standers always looked down on families like the McDonough's simply because of where they lived. They lived on the waterfront of the town right by the wall. John's family didn't make the most money b Though playing on their roofs never helped the opinion of them.

"John! Get down from there before someone sees you!" Guy growled through his teeth.

"You see me." John gave a cocky grin.

"I'm serious John! Dad's gonna kill you!" He shouted back, his face getting red.

"Guy, Dad can't legally kill me." He shrugged.

"Johnathan Michael McDonough get down here this instant!" Guy clenched his fists, his already thin patience being stretched dangerously.

"Make me, Edward Guy McDonough." He stuck his tongue out.

Guy walked off in a huff. John grinned triumphantly before laying back down on the tin roof. Not ten minutes later a stern voice came from below.

"Johnathan." The voice commanded. John sat up, looking down to see his father, Patrick, standing below. Patrick was a stern man, he had a tight leash on his boys and made sure they knew it. Patrick was a simple man with simple needs and he tried to make his boys feel the same.

"Oh uh, h-hey dad." He waved shyly.

"Down. Now." He demanded, putting his fists on his hips.

"Yessir." John climbed down, his thoughts clouded with what punishment he would receive for this one. He trudged to his father to begin the walk home.

"What were you thinking? You could have gotten hurt." Patrick scolded him.

"I was just having fun." John shrugged, hanging his head so he couldn't have to look his father in the eye.

"Your 'having fun' is going to break your leg. You don't go to school, then I catch you up on Ann Codman's roof!" Patrick raised his hands above his head.

"It's not like I was vandalizing…" John murmured, the setting sun that had been warm across his face was blocked by his father's arms, the cool of the shadow reminding him of his coming time on house arrest.

"You could have been hurt." Patrick said firmly, turning before any further argument arose.

John stuck his hands in his pockets and walked behind his father, his brother falling in beside him. He punched Guy in the arm, hard.

"Hey!" Guy snapped, his hand instinctively guarding the bruising muscle of his arm.

"That's for being a snitch." John growled bitterly.

Once they got home Patrick told Guy to go inside and help his mother with dinner while he had a 'talk' with John. John never liked their talks, it usually ended in an argument or him running off to vent to Nick. Patrick sat John down in the rusted up patio furniture that decorated their back porch. John sat back, not daring to look up at his impending doom.

"You need to start takin' responsibility and act like a man, John. Why can't you ever just….be normal? Like your brother! You don't see him climbin' on roofs and trying to climb over the wall!" He pointed at the dull green wall. The wall still had an old scoreboard on it from before the war.

"The only time you ever want me to act like a man is when it benefits you." John crossed his arms. His hair fell in his face as he huffed.

"I'm tryin' to benefit you! All this talk about going outside the wall…John it's not realistic! You're thinkin' about leaving the safety of your home, to go get attacked and eaten by God knows what!" Patrick yelled at the boy.

"Maybe I don't want to be a trader, maybe I don't want to be in a caravan, maybe I don't want to be a bartender or a guard!" He argued back to him. Good ol' teenage rebellion was kicking in.

"Look you're not bad lookin' John, we can set you up with a girl, get you a job, get you a life together-"

"But maybe I don't want YOUR life!" He cut him off. John heaved out a few breaths as his yell echoed through the old baseball diamond.

"J-John I wasn't tryin' to...I'm just-I'm tryin' to make sure that you stay safe in life...These ideas of you wantin' to leave, they break your mom's heart…" Patrick put a hand on John's shoulder.

John finally looked up at his father, his eyes red from holding back tears.

"Hey c'mon don't go cryin' on me…" Patrick hugged him. John buried his face in his father's chest. "Hey hey now I wasn't tryin' to hurt your feelin's…"

"You always want me to be like Guy. I don't wanna be like Guy…" John said, wiping his eyes.

"I shouldn't compare you to Guy. Guy's the oldest, he had different parents then you did." He patted John's back.

"Wha's that mean?" John looked up at Patrick.

"It means that we treated Guy differently when he was a kid. Guy wasn't babied like you were." Patrick sighed.

"That's not my fault…" John's voice cracked a bit.

"I know, I know…" Patrick said. "Just….don't let me catch you on Ann Codman's roof again?"

"Yessir." John nodded.

He followed his father inside, getting one last look at the wall before the door shut behind him.


	2. Nick's Advice

**Author's Note:** Chapter 2 everybody! This time with names!

Nick's Advice.

"Oh my baby!" Martha rushed to her youngest son, covering his freckled cheeks in kisses. "I was so worried about you! I thought they had let you out past the wall!" She held her baby boy close.

"Ma, I'm okay." John sniffed, his eyes still red from his near tears.

"What's wrong? Did you get hurt? Patrick what happened?" She checked him all over for bruises, frantically adjusting his hair.

"Nothin'...we just had a talk was all…" Patrick trailed off, scratching his chin.

"Did he yell at you?" Martha cupped John's face.

"No-well...w-we both yelled…" John pushed his mother's hand away, he didn't want to talk about this. He just wanted to forget it and go to bed.

"John-" Martha began.

"I'm fine." He interrupted quickly.

"John, you don't have to-" Martha tried again.

"Martha, the boy said he was fine." Patrick encouraged her to leave their son be, getting irritated by Martha's constant interrogation of John. "Guy, go set the table for dinner, John set out the dinner." Patrick gestured towards the kitchen. Both boys went into the kitchen to carry out what their father demanded.

"You know why mom treats you like a baby?" Guy asked as he placed the plates on the table.

"Hm?" John humored him with an answer.

"Because you act like a baby." Guy sneered, his laugh being cut off by a punch to the arm.

Guy clenched his jaw, looking up from where he had been setting the forks and knives beside the plates. He let them clatter to the floor from his fist as he snatched John's wrist, pulling him off his feet and into a headlock, twisting his arm painfully.

"Say uncle! Say it!" He demanded.

"No!" John shouted defiantly, writhing and thrashing in his older brother's grip.

"Say it an' I'll let ya go, brat!" Guy pulled harder, ripping John's sleeve.

"Guy, stop it!" He begged, losing the strength to fight back.

"Say it!" Guy shouted.

"Uncle! Uncle!" John gave in as he fell to the floor.

Martha and Patrick came in to see John gasping for air on the floor and Guy having grip marks on his arm from where John had tried to pry his arm away from his neck. John got up and rubbed his neck, trying to lose the red in his cheeks.

"Guy, room." Martha demanded.

"Ma, we were just messin' around!" He protested his punishment.

"Guy. Room." She pointed toward his room.

"Fine." He huffed and went to his and John's room, slamming the door.

Martha held John close,fretting over him and making sure he was okay. If you took a room full of worried mothers, it wouldn't compare to the hysterical worrying of Martha McDonough.

"Are you okay baby? Did he hurt you?"

"Ma I'm okay…" He repeated.

"John you were on the-"

"Ma. I am okay." He walked off and sat at the table.

After a dinner of Martha trying to get John to speak, John went to his and Guy's shared room. Guy had marked his side of the room from John's with white paint. John's side had pictures of boats that his mother had painted along with some books, the occasional baseball along with some other things. Guy's side had parts of old pre-war machines, robot models, history books along with some holotapes. John tried not to wake Guy, but he wasn't even really asleep. The floor creaked under John's shoes, making Guy turn over.

"You think you're so special don't you? Because mom comes to save you every time?" Guy said as he sat up, an ominous tone in his voice.

"Look that's not-"

"Not your choice. I know but don't give me that crap this time!" Guy shouted.

"Everything's always been handed to you because you're the baby! Everything! You don't have to work! You don't have to go to school if you don't want to! You just walk around knowing you will NEVER get in trouble! Dad never even grounds you anymore John! One day the world is gonna hit you like a sack of bricks and you're gonna be alone! Probably out somewhere addicted to Jet and not knowing how to even start a fire!" Guy's face was red with rage as he ranted about John.

John turned and walked out, his face red with some kind of embarrassment. Tears bubbled up in his eyes.

"John?" Martha asked,standing up from her chair. She was worried as always.

"'M goin' out." John said, pulling on his jacket.

"It's raining." Patrick pointed out as his son walked out.

"I'll be back soon." John snapped as he slammed the door.

John trudged over to Nick's. Nick opened the door and sighed when he saw the teenager.

"C'mon in kid." He ushered him into the back alley shack. Nick sat him down as he got back to work on a radio he was fixing for Travis. John sat in silence for a few minutes, not knowing how to word this properly.

"...Kid you gonna-"

"Guy is just a huge douche bag!" John interrupted quite loudly.

"Okay what'd he do this time?" Nick asked with a knowing face.

"He goes and snitches on me for gettin' on Ann Codman's roof! T-then he headlocks me and tries to choke me out! Then h-he rants about how I'm just gonna be a failure in life!" John blathered out as he made wild hand motions. He knocked off Nicks wrench.

"I-I'm sorry…" He picked it up and handed it to Nick as he trailed off.

"It's okay John, I understand." Nick said calmly.

"How can you? You're a robot, you don't have a brother." John said, crossing his arms.

" One. I'm a Synth, not a sentry or an assaultron. Two. You're like a little brother to me." Nick smiled.

"Yeah I guess. You're a better brother than Guy by a mile." John smiled back.

"Now don't say that. You know somewhere deep down you love Guy." Nick encouraged.

"I'd love him better with a Swatter to his knee." John laughed.

"John. Think real hard. If you woke up and Guy was gone, no trace of where he went, or what happened, how would you feel? No one to confide in without judgement, no one to goof off with. The one friend you thought would always be around, gone. How would you feel?" Nick turned his whole chair towards the boy.

"...I'd have you." John said simply. Nick looked surprised.

"Well John-"

"You're kinda like my brother. You're nicer than Guy. You let me help you, you don't hit me, you don't throw rotten tato's at me. You're just a much better person Nick." He looked up at Nick.

"John I...I can't just-" He was interrupted by John hugging him. Nick sighed before patting his back.

Nick would find that it would be a long time for John to come to his senses about his brother. A very long time.


	3. Walls, and How to NOT Get Over Them

Chapter 3: Walls and How NOT to Get Over Them.

 _ **Authors note: Hi...Thought you'd seen the last of me, huh? Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth for a bit. I started this a few months before graduating high school and now I'm in my second year of college. Anyways, here's chapter 3.  
**_

The next day, John was staring at the wall. It was the one thing Diamond City confided in to guard it from the outside wasteland. John had never been allowed past the gates, but today, he was bound to get over that wall. He was fed up with Guy constantly dragging him down, or Patrick always comparing him to Guy, and Martha fussing over him so much. A girl with short black hair ran down beside John. 

"I came as fast as I could, what's wrong?" She asked in a panic.

"Piper, you're the smartest girl I know. I need your help."

"With what?"

"Getting over the wall." He grinned..

She gave him a slack-jawed look before laughing. "John…" She shook her head. "John, no one gets over the wall. No one but the traders and guards." She explained. Piper Wright was about a year younger than him. The 'Wright' in her name was fitting for a girl like her. Firstly, she was always right, and secondly, all she ever did was write. Piper had wanted to go past the wall herself at one time, but she dismissed it for her dream of being a truth-seeking journalist. 

"I can still try, Piper." He balled his fists.

"Yeah, well, what do you need me for?"

"You're better at math than I am. I need the trajectory or whatever of where I need to run, jump, and land to get over it." He explained.

"Okay, well, uh, one: you would need to be high enough and last time I checked, Ann Codman wasn't too happy about you climbing on her roof. Two: if you somehow do managed to jump over the wall, you would break your legs from the impact." Piper crossed her arms and shook her head.

"...Yeah, well, you're not an expert!" John snapped at her..

Piper had a gut feeling this wasn't going to work. She ran off towards Nick's as John glared down the wall. He had to get over it. John sat down on the stage and stared for what seemed like an hour, then he got it. He ran into his house as fast as he could and grabbed a jar full of caps from his dresser. He turned to go out the door when he ran into Patrick.

"What are you doing here, boy?" Patrick asked as John backed up.

"Nothin'..." His face grew red with his lie.

"You lying?" Patrick walked past him and opened the fridge for a beer.

"No, sir." John shook his head.

"Your brother was lookin' for ya' earlier." He sat and opened his beer.

"Guy? He can go jump in the lake." John looked away.

"John, he's your brother. Look one day, you're gonna need each other, maybe not now, but down the road you'll be glad you have him." Patrick assured his son.

"I don't need Guy. He doesn't understand me. He's got his head shoved up—"

"Johnathan." Patrick cut him off. "Guy is still your brother. You and him need to make up." Patrick demanded.

"Fiiiiiine!" John groaned before going outside with the caps.

The market had just about anything you could imagine. Food, supplies, weapons, doctors, barbers, and chems. Most importantly Jet and Mentats. Jet could make you feel like you were flying and Mentats made you so much smarter. John pulled his hood up and discreetly made his way to Chem-I-Care. He slid the jar of caps to Solomon.

"I need all the Jet and Mentats this'll buy." John tried to make his voice sound deeper.

"John? Is that you?" Solomon asked.

"...No." He said, tightening his hood.

"John, why the hell do you need Jet and Mentats?" Solomon groaned.

"I'm gonna jump over the wall! Be quiet!" John hissed in his normal voice.

"...Well, I'm all for stupid ideas." He took the caps and handed him a bag.

"I threw in some Buffout, for the landing." Solomon said.

"Thanks, Solomon." He grinned and ran back to the wall.

He ran as fast as his legs could carry him, being mindful of watching eyes that pried at his hoodie full of drugs. When he got to the wall, Nick and Piper were waiting.

"John, you're not doing this." Nick demanded.

"Las' time I checked, you ain't my dad." John grinned up at him.

"I'll go get your dad!" Piper threatened.

.

"You wouldn't." John's expression fell as he looked at her.

"I will!" She put her hands on her hips, trying to intimidate him.

"You don't got the guts." John taunted.

"Fine then!" She ran off to go find Patrick. John brushed her off and started to carefully take out the Mentats and Jet.

"Where on Earth did you get those?!" Nick balked.

"Solomon." John answered simply.

"Just like that ass, selling drugs to kids. John, get up, we're taking those back and getting you home!" Nick stood over the blonde boy, who had stopped taking out the drugs.

"I'm getting over that wall Nick...one way or another. I don't care if it kills me. It'd be better than dying in this settlement."

"Yeah, the safest settlement in the Commonwealth. John c'mon. Let's just leave."

"THERE'S NOTHING FOR ME HERE!" He shouted loud enough to be heard in the marketplace. His face was red, his eyes bubbled with tears, his fists shaking from his nerves.

"I'm tired of being here, I'm tired of being pushed around and everything else." John said, full of fury. He never wanted to be here. He wanted to leave and never come back to this awful place ever again. This emerald colored symbol of monotony, over protection and paranoia was weighing down on him. He wanted to know what was out there, what was past the wall.

"Johnathan Micheal McDonough." Patricks voice echoed from behind Nick. Piper stood behind Patrick, still standing her ground.

"What in God's name is that?" He pointed at the few boxes of Mentats, Jet and Buffout.

"It–it's...well it's a funny story dad, you're gonna love this—" He began.

"Stop. Get back to that house. I...I can't believe you right now John. You lied to me. You went behind my back, trying to get over this wall, now you buy drugs?! You know what your momma's gonna say?!"

"Dad—"

"I don't wanna hear it!" Patrick was now red-faced. "Just–! Get in the house!" He shouted. John trudged back to the house. He glared at Piper as his dad walked behind him. The door closed. Thus began a whole new array of problems for John McDonough.


End file.
